I think the single most important change we need in this country is the ability to impeach

[Fresh_Start]

members of Congress or Congress as a whole.
For individual congress critters, impeachment should occur if the majority of the voters in their state want them inpeached
For Congress as a whole, if the majority of national voters wants congress impeached.
It should be on the ballot in every election.

[3catwoman3]

1. Sounds good to me. Why not impeachment options...

...for the judicial branch, as well? Equal treatment for all branches.

[leftynyc]

15. The federal bench

already has impeachment. It's the only way to get rid of a federal judge (that includes the supreme court).

[Lurks Often]

2. It will never pass Congress

and is unlikely to stand up to judicial scrutiny either

[Fresh_Start]

3. I understand it will take a constitutional amendment..

but if ever there were a year when there were enough disgruntled voters to get such an amendment...this is the year

[Lurks Often]

4. Be careful what you wish for

To get what you want would require a Constitutional Convention by the states and since the Republicans control the majority of the states you won't like what else gets passed.

[longship]

6. ^THIS IS WHAT THEY "DEVOUTLY" WISH^

The GOP is nothing but a fundamentalist religious cabal. There is nothing they would love more than a ConCon, a Constitutional Convention where they can remake this country into the warped religious domain that they wet dream about. All one has to do is listen to whom their candidates listen to, most especially Ted Cruz, or Sam Brownback, or any of the myriad of theocrats in the GOP.

Then, there's Hillary Clinton and her C Street buddies, quaintly called "The Family".

Religion and politics, religion and government, are a toxic mix. Always have been, always will be.

No ConCon for me. I prefer the slow, deliberative way.

[former9thward]

5. House elections are every two years.

If voters don't want someone they can vote them out every two years. That is enough. Impeachment is not needed and would just be used to harass political opponents.

[Fresh_Start]

8. and the majority of people sit out midterm elections

and obviously from the tenor of the electorate, many/most voters feel that Congress is not responding to them versus well monied interests.

We have no carrot...we need a stick.

[Hekate]

13. Agitate to get Civics classes back in high school. Get involved in GOTV.

GET INVOLVED IN LOCAL PARTY POLITICS -- that's a collective enterprise.

[ladjf]

7. If Trump is impeached, the VP will become the President. nt

[Recursion]

9. There's already an "impeach the entire House" vote every two years (nt)

[Hekate]

12. That's the short version of what I said down thread!

[Major Nikon]

10. After Roy Moore was removed from office, the wingnuts in Alabama reelected him

You can't fix stupid.

[Hekate]

11. You want a Constitutional change. In fact you want to overthrow the government. But here's reality..

The Constitution lays out how to get rid of office holders very very clearly: Every 2, 4, and 6 years we have this thing called e-lec-tions. If the majority of voters in a state or district want an officeholder gone, the officeholder is out on their butt.

The Constitution also lays out very clearly the type of e-lec-tions we have across the country. Except for the president, we don't all get to say who's going to be in charge someplace else. Do you really want little Vermont to lose its Senator Sanders just because he's not popular in, say, Mississippi?

In fact, the Flint water crisis was caused by just such a scheme to overthrow locally elected Mayors and City Councils in black communities all around the state, and replace them with unelected "City Managers" appointed by the far-RW Governor.

[Fresh_Start]

14. I never said I wanted Mississippi to vote out Vermont senator

however if the national approval rate of Congress is 14%...
the problem is not individual legislators, its the entire organization.
The organization has become unaccountable...the power of incumbency means that there is low probability that problems get fixed through the current election process.

[Hekate]

17. You will find unintended consequences. Beware.

[oberliner]

16. No thanks

Just vote them out of office in two years.